Why go
Reykjavik is compact enough to cross on foot in half an hour, which makes it an unusually easy base. Corrugated-iron houses in saturated colours, a serious coffee and bakery culture, geothermal pools that function as the city's social centre, and Hallgrimskirkja standing over all of it. Most Iceland trips begin and end here, and two days at the start is enough to adjust before heading out to the Ring Road or the south coast.